A member of the “Exit Point” amateur rope-jumping group jumps from a 44-metre high (144-feet high) waterpipe bridge in the Siberian Taiga area outside Krasnoyarsk, September 28, 2014. Fans of rope-jumping, a kind of extreme sport involving a jump from a high point using an advanced system of amortization including mountaineering and rope safety equipment, attended the Golden Autumn group's jumping season. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

A visitor holds an Israeli-made rifle during the 8th International Land and Naval Defense system exhibition, in New Delhi, India, on February 6, 2014. (Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)

A boy uses remnants of ordnance as he prepares dough inside Abu Khaled's shop in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus April 28, 2015. Abu Khaled opened a shop for making “barley bread” using remnants of weapons including rockets, tank shells and other ordnance fired by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. (Photo by Amer Almohibany/Reuters)

A man strikes a pose in front of a giant torta, or sandwich, during a press conference to promote the 13th annual Torta Festival, in Mexico City, Wednesday, July 20, 2016. The five day festival presents a variety of the Mexican street food made from the most exotic ingredients that include ostrich or stingray, to the classic ham, grilled steak or slow cooked pork. The festival's purpose is to maintain the tradition of eating tortas, and promote the vendors of the Mexican sandwich. (Photo by Marco Ugarte/AP Photo)

2016 Rio Olympics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Final, Individual All-Around Final, Rotation 1, Rio Olympic Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 20, 2016. Melitina Staniouta (BLR) of Belarus competes using the hoop. (Photo by Ruben Sprich/Reuters)

An injured woman is pictured near the Blue Parrot nightclub in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Ro state, Mexico where 5 people were killed, three of them foreigners, during a music festival on January 16, 2017. A shooting erupted at an electronic music festival in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen early Monday, leaving at least five people dead and sparking a stampede, the mayor said. Fifteen people were injured, some in the stampede, after at least one shooter opened fire before dawn at the Blue Parrot nightclub during the BPM festival. (Photo by Victor Vargas/AFP Photo)

Hot air balloons take to the skies as they participate in the mass assent at sunrise on the second day of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta on August 11, 2017 in Bristol, England. More than 130 balloons have gathered for the four day event, now in its 39th year and now one of Europe's largest annual hot air balloon events, being hosted in the city that is seen by many as the home of modern ballooning. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)